Its a bugger how the Fujitsu just isn't making me want to drop for it - the screen seems a major weakness (talking Stylistic/Lifebook hybrid/convertible). If they had a 1920x1080 screen in a q702 that would be interesting and they dropped the ball on the t902 on the screen as well. Fujitsu, what are you doing! The Helix looks right in the thick of things for price etc with the MS right on its backside on the top category. The q572 slate seems a reasonable all around compromise assuming it isn't slow as molasses and if Ntrig isn't terrible.

I have to say, the Ativ looks pretty compelling and I could actually get one now (looks like its a 256 gig hard drive option as well). The Helix would have 4 gigs more ram and more battery life and maybe a faster processor but WHEN is the big question. The Surface also looks compelling but I can't get it here. Fortunately, I can wait until May but am tempted to go look at an Ativ now. Not sure I am in love with Samsung but that said I am not in love with Lenovo either. The Sony looks pretty nice as well but I don't think I'd like the slider.

Decisions decisions.

edit - I have to ask, is it going to be asking to much to be running Lightroom on these i5/i7 devices and expecting reasonable performance with small libraries (going on assumption ssd not mechanical drive)? Its the only 'real' use I would want above and beyond surfing and simple spreadsheets/word docs/pdf reading.

Thats a great link. Thanks for that. I can see my old notebook with its core 2 duo 8600p coming in 179th spot while the Ativ ia at 122 so more processing power AND an ssd; I suspect it tops my old notebook for sure then. Obviously isn't going to touch the desktop but probably quite capable given I didn't find the old notebook 'that' bad.

edit

Interestingly, saw most of these candidates in the shop today. The Samsung Ativ was nice but the tablet screen portion was lopsided vs the keyboard and the screen was disappointing (not ips). The Yoga was quite nice for feel/weight/keyboard and, pardon the pun, flexibility but the screen resolution was disappointing. The Helix would be a winner over it I am sure...when it comes.

The surpise, Acer S7. Thin, light, great screen, fast (i7) and blistering for drive (pair of raid 0 ssd's is genius and probably kicks ass for Lightroom). Screen doesn't come off and no fancy tablet stuff but its so light and nicely made I am tempted. Only thing I wasn't a huge fan of was the keyboard and I gather the battery life ain't great (but I am normally plugged in). No n-trig or wacom I don't believe so not sure you can use any kind of pen for drawing/writing at all either. Hmmmm.

The Helix is showing up in tabook as of 26/03. Here in Australia, one of the suppliers my company buys from is listing three models of Helix with an ETA of 08/05 and prices roughly 20% above the bottom-end X1 Carbon for the cheapest one (i5, 4GB/128GB, no 3G) and 10% above the top-end X1 Carbon Touch for the high-end version (i7, 8GB/256GB, 3G).

The Helix is showing up in tabook as of 26/03. Here in Australia, one of the suppliers my company buys from is listing three models of Helix with an ETA of 08/05 and prices roughly 20% above the bottom-end X1 Carbon for the cheapest one (i5, 4GB/128GB, no 3G) and 10% above the top-end X1 Carbon Touch for the high-end version (i7, 8GB/256GB, 3G).

Hehe, 'coming spring 2013' to me isn't August 2013. That would be 'coming late summer 2013'

The Helix is showing up in tabook as of 26/03. Here in Australia, one of the suppliers my company buys from is listing three models of Helix with an ETA of 08/05 and prices roughly 20% above the bottom-end X1 Carbon for the cheapest one (i5, 4GB/128GB, no 3G) and 10% above the top-end X1 Carbon Touch for the high-end version (i7, 8GB/256GB, 3G).

Hehe, 'coming spring 2013' to me isn't August 2013. That would be 'coming late summer 2013'

The timing is going to be very tight Captain. I fly out on the 22nd for 6 weeks and would really really like something in hand with a bit of time to get it set up and such. If its here in HK I will be stunned - might have to pull in a favor if its in the US and get it bought/reshipped.

I actually kinda liked the Taichi and Yoga but both are just not quite there for me knowing that this is coming very shortly.

Intel has started shipping its Haswell CPUs to system builders. The site also states that the processors will be launched at the end of this quarter, with Intel providing more details next Wednesday...

Oh man oh man oh man. PLEASE tell me this is the reason for the delay!

Intel has started shipping its Haswell CPUs to system builders. The site also states that the processors will be launched at the end of this quarter, with Intel providing more details next Wednesday...

Oh man oh man oh man. PLEASE tell me this is the reason for the delay!

No way is that the reason for the delay.

- The Helix is shipping in very limited numbers, showing there's no more hardware development.- Between shipping CPU's, manufacture of units (Pc/laptops) and shipping of said units will be many months. I don't expect to see Haswell arrive in stores before july and even then in very limited numbers.

The Helix is as it is, Ivy Bridge ULV and all that.

The more probable reason is that it's a niche product with low demand and thus doesn't get much priority in the plants. It's a nice flagship/tech demo, but it won't seel much.

- The Helix is shipping in very limited numbers, showing there's no more hardware development.

Curious where you got that information from? I've been following the delays, but I haven't seen anything about how many will be available or what they're doing for follow-on development?

I've been eagerly awaiting an Ars review, and I'd be disappointed if they didn't make at least one more generation after this. The form-factor looks compelling, though I haven't been able to hold or type on one.

The more probable reason is that it's a niche product with low demand and thus doesn't get much priority in the plants. It's a nice flagship/tech demo, but it won't seel much.

I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you. My company's chomping at the bit to get their hands on these. They bought a slew of ipads for board meetings and presentations, but have been frustrated with the devices' limitations. The workarounds we've had to use have been more hassle than it's been worth. We're back to good old fashioned binders and paper presentations, which are a pain to set up for several dozen people on short notice. The Helix could be a match made in heaven, as they can set everyone up with one to be used at meetings, at their workstations with a monitor/keyboard/mouse, on the road, etc.

It has the power to be an actual workstation replacement, the pen will be perfect for our map work, the tablet makes it perfect for meetings, and it should have enough battery life to make it through an entire day.

Why again do you believe it will have low demand and won't sell much? Perhaps that may hold true in the normal consumer world, but this thing may prove a Godsend for the business world, which is Lenovo's bread and butter anyhow.

- The Helix is shipping in very limited numbers, showing there's no more hardware development.

Curious where you got that information from? I've been following the delays, but I haven't seen anything about how many will be available or what they're doing for follow-on development?

It's common sense really.

1. The (business) Convertibles of Lenovo are great devices, yet it's really a niche for artists etc. They never sold in big numbers (did fine, but it's niche really)2. The Helix is more expensive than the Ativ etc. That's logical considering it's a business device. It probably won't sell muc through standard retail channels (less of an issue now that Lenovo has their web shops in order, but still)3. It's their top mdoel, under it are fine devices as the Yoga etc.

So it simply wont be a device that will sell in truckloads.

Quote:

I've been eagerly awaiting an Ars review, and I'd be disappointed if they didn't make at least one more generation after this. The form-factor looks compelling, though I haven't been able to hold or type on one.

I was perhaps a bit confusing there. I meant that what we know of the device is what we are going to get this year. Further development is up in the air ofc, but this years model surely won't have any surprises and won't have Haswell.

The more probable reason is that it's a niche product with low demand and thus doesn't get much priority in the plants. It's a nice flagship/tech demo, but it won't seel much.

I wouldn't be so sure about that if I were you. My company's chomping at the bit to get their hands on these. They bought a slew of ipads for board meetings and presentations, but have been frustrated with the devices' limitations. The workarounds we've had to use have been more hassle than it's been worth. We're back to good old fashioned binders and paper presentations, which are a pain to set up for several dozen people on short notice. The Helix could be a match made in heaven, as they can set everyone up with one to be used at meetings, at their workstations with a monitor/keyboard/mouse, on the road, etc.

Unless you crave for Wacom I don't see it as a good valued device, but perhaps they can break that barrier with this device.

Quote:

It has the power to be an actual workstation replacement, the pen will be perfect for our map work, the tablet makes it perfect for meetings, and it should have enough battery life to make it through an entire day.

- It's ULV, so don't dream too much about horsepowers - The pen is nice, but niche (I'm very exited about it as well!) and for most people it's simply not that important.- 3-4 hours without dock, add another 2 with the dock (educated guess, not just by me but from others)

Quote:

Why again do you believe it will have low demand and won't sell much? Perhaps that may hold true in the normal consumer world, but this thing may prove a Godsend for the business world, which is Lenovo's bread and butter anyhow.

Price. It's going to start at 1700Euro and with some decent upgrades and service plan you will easily be paying ±2500. That's a simple deduction from listed Lenovo prices, their care packages and some experience dealing with them. It's worth it for a business device, no questions asked. But for consumers it's going to be a bit much.

And businesses will buy if they need it, if not they'll keep their wallets closed. It's harsh times.

Well, I could argue against this saying that for some people, a ULV i5 Ivy Bridge is more than enough. 1.7GHz for someone who is just working on email, Powerpoint presentations and documents, and their browser du jour will have no problems with this whatsoever. Even some light work in something like Eclipse, Visual Studio, or other commercial IDE should not be a problem.

Of course, I wouldn't call it a real workstation replacement, coming from an actual workstation laptop (Precision, Elitebook). But I certainly understand why some people are calling it that.

Quote:

- 3-4 hours without dock, add another 2 with the dock (educated guess, not just by me but from others)

Supposedly people on the Lenovo forums who have a unit (likely review units) are stating that they are getting a proper 4 hours undocked and up to or even over 8 hours while docked. That's pretty decent compared to Lenovo's claimed 4-5 and 10 hours.

I've got a Thinkpad 420s with a Intel Core i5-2520M in it and I don't often find myself needing much more than that. I run a local MySQL DB, Visual Studio, and your standard assortment of web browsers and office apps, and it handles it admirably. According to Notebookcheck the highest end i7 in the Helix will just outperform my Thinkpad, and at significantly less power. Of course it's not a real powerhouse, but I think that level of CPU is more than enough for most.

It's fine for 99% of cases. It's just someone wanted to be a workstation replacement, but a workstation is generally a very fast desktop PC and the Helix simply can't take that role. Horses for courses

Battery life remains of course a guess and highly depending on usage. But considering the dock has about 3/4 of the juice of the tablet the dock can't double the battery life

I am curious how people seem to be buying this yet it isn't even released on the US site (I called Hong Kong Lenono today and they say next month). This guy got it from PC Connection - how a company I have never heard of vs say Newegg or Amazon or Lenovo is managing to deliver units seems a bit odd to me. I would think they would try and have a 'release' and make a splash but whatever - maybe I can get my hands on one next month. My concern is the HK site indicates 4 gig or ram; I want a top end 8 gig one.

It's fine for 99% of cases. It's just someone wanted to be a workstation replacement, but a workstation is generally a very fast desktop PC and the Helix simply can't take that role. Horses for courses

Our cheap Dell workstations are several years old with Core2Duos and old onboard graphics. Trust me, even with the lower voltage, the Helix will absolutely smoke our crappy old workstations. Now, will this be a replacement for companies with newer hardware? Probably not, but you got to remember that many companies (like mine) are running on older setups, and have been waiting for something just like this to invest in replacing the old fleet.

And as some have already pointed out, even the older i5's are perfectly adequate for running most software, and even some light image work. Thus, even a ULV i7 is going to rock for most applications. Many of our guys have invested in their own Wacom Bamboo pads. The Helix will definitely be the way to go for us.

Is it expensive? Yes, but you know how Lenovo is. In a short while, they will be offering good discounts and should be hooking us up. As for me, unless somebody comes out with something better soon, I'm shooting for a Helix decked out with an i7, 8gb ram, and a 256 gb hd.

I won't lie, I do wish the ports were on one side of the tablet half. The reason for this being that if you need to quickly pop out the tablet, you don't have to also disconnect anything and re-connect it to the tablet. For example, if you've got a mini DisplayPort adapter and a USB mouse plugged into the dock, you have to disconnect both and plug them into the tablet after you've popped it out. Not a huge disadvantage, but you know, it's convenient.

I won't lie, I do wish the ports were on one side of the tablet half. The reason for this being that if you need to quickly pop out the tablet, you don't have to also disconnect anything and re-connect it to the tablet. For example, if you've got a mini DisplayPort adapter and a USB mouse plugged into the dock, you have to disconnect both and plug them into the tablet after you've popped it out. Not a huge disadvantage, but you know, it's convenient.

Wouldn't it be much more common for someone to pop the tablet off and walk away with it, though? If you want to connect the tablet to desk-bound peripherals like a mouse and (especially) monitor, surely you could just as well leave it attached to the keyboard/dock portion anyway?

[Wouldn't it be much more common for someone to pop the tablet off and walk away with it, though? If you want to connect the tablet to desk-bound peripherals like a mouse and (especially) monitor, surely you could just as well leave it attached to the keyboard/dock portion anyway?

My thoughts exactly. I sometimes use the hdmi/usb ports on my Android tablet, but that's only because I have to. If I had a base, I would prefer to use that any time I had anything plugged in. I still see what Asbath's getting at, though. Flexibility is always a nice thing. I have a feeling that might've been tough to pull off with this particular design, though. One side of the screen holds the stylus, so it'd be tough to squeeze a usb plug in there. The other side contains the CPU, I believe, so not a good place either from an engineering standpoint. If you look at the screen, it seems to have an asymmetrical bezel, with the bottom portion being larger than the other three sides, so the bottom seems to be about the most logical place they were able to place any of the screen's ports.

I definitely know what you mean, but I only mentioned having ports on the side of the tablet purely from the "wouldn't it be great?" perspective.

For example when giving a presentation you can just pop out the tablet without having to move your USB presenter dongle, or the mini displayport adapter. It's really just a 3 second operation to move both the USB and mini display port to the tablet, but it's more convenient to not have to. As well, I understand that the engineers have very little wiggle room in regards to placement of the ports, so that's why I really don't mind that the ports are where they are.

You know what would be sweet? Imagine if the keyboard/base was able to communicate wirelessly with the tablet when undocked. That way you could type on it from the couch, while the screen is plugged into the tv or a projector, or you could leave your usb devices plugged in to the base while walking around with the tablet, and many other great exercises in flexibility.

I don't foresee that on this iteration Helix (although that would rock!), but I'd be willing to bet we'll see that become a standard feature on hybrids within the next few years.

Thanks for that Foggiest. I talked to Lenovo today - they said 3 weeks. Very tight for me but probably worth the wait; especially as I am sure the prices will be better than NZ although never as good as the US.

Thanks for that Foggiest. I talked to Lenovo today - they said 3 weeks. Very tight for me but probably worth the wait; especially as I am sure the prices will be better than NZ although never as good as the US.